Identity Check

Mono Monday: Identity Check

So what do we have in this plant pot then?  Its clearly some sort of large beetle ...

1. Large black beetle (not reddish brown like the male Stag beetle):  tick
2. All black wing cases (not reddish like the female Stag beetle: tick
3. Broad head: tick
4. Large mandibles, but not antler shaped like the Stag beetle proper: tick
5. Knobbed antennae: tick (although its hiding them at the moment as it thinks the cameraman might be a predator,  but you can just see its left antennae which is folded below its left eye, if you look carefully)

So it must be .... the Lesser stag beetle.

This image is a stack of 50 separate images from front to back taken using a macro lens.  Fortunately the beetle stayed still for the process (in the main).  He must have flown into the pot at some stage, but from the way that he was going around and around the edge of the pot, he hadn't worked out how to get out.  Once the photoshoot was done, I carefully picked him up on a dried leaf and deposited him close to some decaying wood, at which point he quickly beetled off ....